Russian poachers purge parks as Moscow goes nuts for squirrels

Extra police to patrol parks and hand out fines as large numbers of squirrels go missing to become household pets

Muscovites feed the squirrels in Neskuchny Sad park. The squirrels seem to be disappearing across the capital, with many thought to have been poached as household pets. Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

One by one, the bushy-tailed residents of Moscow's parks have been disappearing. The problem: Russians have gone nuts for keeping squirrels as pets.

Moscow authorities bolstered security last week for all of the city's green areas after a city official, Alexei Gorelov, said he had received multiple reports of squirrel poaching.

Gorelov, who heads an ecological control unit, said more police patrols were being dispatched to fend off the poachers, who can be fined up to 20,000 rubles (£350).

Noting that squirrels were of little use for their meat or fur, he said most were resold as pets for 5,000 rubles each.

Wild animals have to be enjoyed from a distance, said Gorelov as he scrolled through a Russian website selling squirrel pets. Despite the website's claims that squirrels are a friendly and gentle animal to keep around the house, they can bite and are not domesticated.

Some animal lovers were outraged at the poaching.

"The fine should not be 5,000 rubles, it should be 500,000 rubles for this kind of poaching," said Alexandra Mishenko, who feeds the squirrels in Moscow's parks.

"We should gather people together and pelt the person who does that with snow," she said.